Vaccine Program Is Late

Federal Effort To Immunize All Children Founders

October 19, 1994

President Clinton wanted universal health care. He settled for an expansion of the immunization program for children. Now we find that, after a year of planning, the federal government has been unable to get the expanded program - free shots in private doctors' offices - up and running. One has to wonder whether the government could ever administer the massive health care program the administration proposed.

Bureaucrats in the federal Department of Health and Human Services say their plan to store the vaccine in a warehouse in New Jersey and distribute it across the country was nixed by Congress. So they had to come up with a new distribution plan late in the process. About half of the states decided to create and oversee their own distribution network. They were smart.

The other half, including Virginia, decided to leave it to the federal government. The result - 19 days after the expected starting date - is no vaccine.

According to a spokesman, the government has been unable to negotiate a contract with the vaccine manufacturers to provide the vaccine because of "the complexity of negotiating a deal with the private sector." In other words, a nation that can move a massive military force to Kuwait almost overnight and overwhelm Saddam Hussein isn't so good at operating this small fraction of a health care system.

We should note that the public health clinics have plenty of vaccine, so the glitch in the program affects only those children who are eligible for free vaccine and would receive the shots in their doctors' offices. But the seeming inability to implement this program can only add to public frustration about inept government.